While the World Health Organization advocates for the use of medical masks when caring for suspected COVID-19 patients[1], practical barriers threaten adherence[2]: global medical mask supplies are low and dwindling still[3]. This is a multifactorial phenomenon: some factors are beyond reasonable control, some are not; the civilian hoarding of medical masks[3],[4] appears to me to fall in the latter category.

As a prime example of panic-driven, reasonably unreasonable conduct, civilian hoarding may indeed be counteracted to some important extent by repeatedly invoking “positive peer pressure” through various social awareness campaigns, but uniform enactment is all but guaranteed, and significant social impunity looms.

For this reason, I believe that the time is now or never for governments to consider the adoption of temporary legal measures – provided such is permissible within the parameters of constitutional and/or international law safeguards – which limit the public use of medical masks to healthcare professionals on duty.

Following enactment, transgressions must be penalized, predictably and foreseeably – as well as swiftly and appreciably – to ensure sufficient dissuasive effect.

Post-acceptance update (29 April 2020): This paper addresses considerations on the optimal allocation of scarce goods in a high-pressure context that is by nature rapidly evolving; it is therefore prudent to note that policy and law are apt to change as pragmatic constraints lessen. For this reason, I wish to add in conclusion that, as public life gradually resumes, the mandatory use of face masks (medical-grade or not) in certain locations may prove vital in curbing the coronavirus pandemic; some countries have indeed enacted laws to this effect. I wish to encourage strict adherence to said laws.

World Health Organization. Advice on the use of masks in the community, during home care and in healthcare settings in the context of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak – interim guidance, 29 January 2020. Available from: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/330987.